MONGER, Ivor John "Jack"

Published 4:00 am, Friday, April 22, 2005

MONGER, Ivor John "Jack" - December 10, 1922 - April 11, 2005 Ivor John "Jack" Monger was born December 10, 1922 in the smelter town of Garfield, Utah. He passed away on April 11, 2005 in Sacramento after a long illness. Jack and his parents Walter and Reba Monger, moved from Utah to Crockett, CA in 1936 and lived in the Crockett area until after Jack graduated from John Swett High School In 1942. Jack entered the U.S. Army Air Corps during W.W.II, trained in airplane mechanics and was assigned to B-17 and B-25 bombers. As a flight engineer, his crew joined the 457th Bomb Group flying B-17s out of the east coast of England on bombing runs over Germany and France. With the war ending in Europe, Jack was reassigned back to the U.S. to be trained on B-29s in preparation of assignment to the Pacific Theater. Before leaving for the Pacific, Japan surrendered and Jack received his Honorable Discharge. After returning home, Jack and his parents moved to Paradise, CA, where they cleared land and built a house. Jack worked at various jobs, including in the Diamond Match sawmill at Sterling City and for the Western Pacific Railroad installing new signaling system lines through the Feather River Canyon. After enrolling at Chico State College under the G.I. Bill, he graduated in 1951 with his B.A. in education and his teaching credential. Starting his teaching career in Cottonwood (Shasta County), he was hired in 1952 by the San Lorenzo Unified School District. Through his 29 year career as a popular teacher in San Lorenzo, Jack taught 5th, 6th and 7th grades at Edendale, El Portal and Martin schools. On a yearly basis, students and parents alike were proud to be part of "Monger's Monsters". It was not uncommon after he had retired that former students would contact him and visit. He was also very active in developing the district science curriculum in the 1960s, the school district science museum and establishing the popular yearly science field trips. During summer vacations in the 1960s and 1970s, he and his family would spend weeks collecting rocks and working at paleontology digs in the Rocky Mountain states for various national museums in order to bring new materials home to his students. In 1953, he met then married another San Lorenzo teacher, Edith Johnston of Santa Cruz. They started to raise a family in Hayward, then moved to Dublin in 1965. Upon Jack's retirement in 1981, they moved to their cabin at Grizzly Flats in El Dorado County. Before his illness, Jack was very community minded, always stood up for the underdog and well known as a jokester. He was a 50 year Mason, a member of the Scottish Rite and a former member of the Toastmaster's Club of San Leandro. He was always very active, having built his own glider and earning awards for his long flights in the 1950s as a member of the Northern California Soaring Club, then after retirement active in the local amateur radio club, an officer in the Dragin' Wagons Trailer Club, volunteered and sat on the governing board of the Grizzly Flats Community Services District and even was a library volunteer at the new Union Mine High School in Diamond Springs. Jack was a former member of the Fairview Volunteer Firefighters Assoc. in Hayward, an Alameda County Fire District volunteer, then after retirement a member of the Pioneer Volunteer Firefighters Assoc. in El Dorado County. He was also a voracious reader, loved traveling and the outdoors. Jack was preceded in death by a daughter, Sharon, his mother Reba, father Walter and brother Hubert. He is survived by his wife Edith Monger, his son Wayne and daughter-in-law Lynda of Suisun City, CA, daughters Gayle Monger of Arizona and Bonnie Porter of Somerset, CA plus granddaughter Jessica Porter of Sacramento. A celebration of his life will be held in El Dorado County at Grizzly Flats Community Church on Saturday, April 23 at Noon. Interment will be at Westwood Hills Memorial Park on Cold Spring Road in Placerville. Green Valley Mortuary of Cameron Park, CA handled the arrangements. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in memory of Ivor J. Monger to help support his favorite charity, the California Scottish Rite Childhood Language Center, 1547 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, CA 94612.